by Los Angeles People’s Media
Friday, May. 02, 2014 at 6:08 PM
Citizens outraged over bank crimes, fraud-closures, and on-going corruption rallied outside Wells Fargo and Bank of America in Los Anbgeles on May 1, 2014 for #MayDay2014 #StopWellsFargo #DanceAgainstBanks #opDAB.
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LOS ANGELES, CA – On Thursday, May 1, homeowner advocates marched from Pershing Square to Bank of America (333 S. Hope St.), Wells Fargo (717 W. Olympic Boulevard), and the Los Angeles office of the U.S. Federal Reserve (Olympic & Grand) to protest the greed, corruption, fraudclosures, and ongoing abuses of the big banks.
In solidarity with the National Day of Action against Wells Fargo (held in the end of April) Occupy Fights Foreclosures called on allies in Southern California to join this #MayDay2014 protest in downtown Los Angeles. Earlier on the same day, an autonomous action called “Dance Against Banks,” or #opDAB, was held at a downtown Bank of American location.
As announced at the Occupy Los Angeles General Assembly on April 23, “If we do not keep taking to the streets, the big banks will be able to convince everybody that things are just fine. We make the banksters uncomfortable when we show up on their doorstep, and it is important to keep the pressure on and let them know we haven’t forgotten their crimes against the people!”
In California, people are outraged at the mere $400 million of the nearly $2 billion “Keep Your Home California” federal stimulus funds which have been distributed help homeowners since the program was launched in 2010.America’s largest mortgage servicer also just recently lost the battle to keep its “Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Foreclosure Attorney Procedure Manual” out of New York federal court. This controversial book contains procedures for fabricating foreclosure papers on demand.
Wells Fargo moved their annual general meeting (being held this week) to a secluded resort in San Antonio with a heavy security presence to avoid the protests that have become commonplace at their meetings. In years past, proceedings were interrupted with calls for John Stumpf to be doing jail time for "racist lending" as protesters were escorted out of meetings chiding investors for their predatory crimes against hard-working everyday people.
Occupy Fights Foreclosures announced, “We must impress upon Wells Fargo that it would be better to work with their customers than hide from them. Let’s tell them we are tired of their shady business practices! Customers are supposed to be served, not strip-mined.” Occupy demands delivered to Wells Fargo locations in 20 cities around the country included: stop all foreclosures and evictions, provide reasonable loan modifications that include principal reduction, and stop employing tactics to mislead, harass, and intimidate homeowners.
For Los Angeles #MayDay2014 on Thursday, Bank of America location fenced off their plaza prior to the arrival of the Million Mask Mayday L.A. march at noon. Dozens of marchers lined the sidewalks with banners reading “Fraud = BoA business model,” and “BoA: Bad for America” and took turns at a public address system calling the bankers and the police to task.
The march continued on to #StopWellsFargo, where the entire sidewalk at Figueroa and Olympic was blocked by a gigantic red banner reading “We’re Felons” in the style of the bank’s logo. Danza Azteca performed a sage ceremony before passionate speakers addressed the crowd about big bank crimes. Before continuing down the block to join the Southern California Immigrants Rights Coalition march, the crowd converged at the Los Angeles office of the Federal Reserve Bank for a teach-in.
